Just Had to Get Out
by sunnyblainey
Summary: Albus runs away from school, but he refuses to tell anyone why. WARNING: Rated M for mentions of cutting. Please don't read if this upsets you.


It was a nice kitchen, he supposed. Full of... kitchen stuff. He voiced this thought out loud to his Uncle, who didn't laugh and told Albus to answer the question.

"What question?" Albus asked, knowing perfectly well what the question was.

"Why are you here?" George repeated, for about the third or fourth time. No response. "Albus Severus Potter. You need to tell me why you are here, in the middle of November, on a /school day/." Still, no response. His Aunt Angelina entered the room with hot chocolate and cookies. She placed a mug and a few cookies in front of her nephew and sat down. George took his mug and sipped it, waiting for Albus to talk. When no one spoke, angelina broke he silence.

"I owled your parents, Al. They'll be here soon." At this, Albus looked up at her, like a deer caught in the headlights.

"No! They can't know I'm here! Please Aunt Angie, owl them again and say it was a mistake! Please!" The 16 year old boy looked only 6 as he begged. Angelina wondered what could have happened. they had woken up this morning at 6am to a knocking at the door. When Angelina had answered, Albus had been standing on the mat, dripping wet and bleeding from multiple cuts all over his face. He was bruised, and kept his sleeves over his hands as if they were cold. It had been over an hour, and though he should have had plenty of time to warm his hands, he still kept them in the sleeves of his soaking wet sweater.

"Albus, why don't you take off your sweater? It's soaking wet, I can't dry it while you're wearing it." The dark haired boy shook his head, almost frantically. "Albus, please. You'll get sick if you leave it on."

"I don't care..."

"Albus, I agree with Angie, it wouldn't do to have you get sick." George put in.

"No! Just... Just leave me alone." There was a wild look in his eyes, one that was searching for an exit. He wasn't sure why he had come here, only that he knew he needed to get out of the school. This had been the first place he'd thought of.

"You came here for a reason, Albus. We're here to help you, just tell us what's going on." Angelina said gently. Albus sat for moment in silence.

"I ran away." The words were spoken softly, Angelina remained silent and waited for him to coninue. "I don't want to go to school anymore."

"Why not?" George queried. Albus' head snapped up, he glared at his Uncle knowing full well the anger he felt was in his eyes. Even if his uncle wasn't the cause, he needed to vent.

"Why not!? What gives you the right to ask that?! You didn't even finish school! You ran away too!" It was a poor argument and Albus knew it. Angelina asked him again to remove the sweater. Albus opened his mouth, a refusal on the tip of his tongue when Harry and Ginny Potter came through the door. Without a word they each took a seat at the table. Albus felt his breathing quicken, he hated this. He felt like he was a criminal being interrogated. He didn't do anything wrong... All he wanted was to get out of that horrible environment.

Harry looked positively livid, and it scared Albus even more. He knew he had to keep the sweater on no matter what.

"Albus, you're soaking wet. Give me that sweater." Ginny commanded, in a gentle but firm voice. He shook his head slowly, and he knew before it even happened it would only spur his mother on. Before he could protest, Ginny had managed to wrestle the sweater off of her son. Albus did the only thing he could, he dived for it.

It was a mistake. His bare arms were now visible to everyone in the room. Albus tried to hide his arms under the table, but it was too late. His father caught one of his hands and pulled it towards him.

"Al... Who did this?" He motioned to the cuts and scars that spanned the whole arm. Some were older, almost healed. Others were fresh as if they'd been done only a few hours ago. Ginny abandoned the sweater and picked up Al's other arm as gently as she could. Both her and Harry knew the real answer to the question. "Albus, answer me."

"I... er... it was an accident."

"Don't lie, Albus. We taught you better than that." His mother's voice shook slightly as she spoke.

"I did them..." There was no point in keeping up the act now. They've seen the cuts, they know how weak he is now. What would be the point in pretending?

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"That's not a good enough answer!" Harry barked, a little harsher than he intended. Angelina retrieved a salve from a cabinet and brought it over, motioning for George to follow. The two of them began to spread the cool liquid on the cuts. Albus tried to pull his arms away from his parents' grip, but to no avail.

"Albus... what's been going on at school? Don't think we haven't noticed that you've been reluctant to go back... did something happen?" Ginny asked, rubbing small circles on the back of her son's hand.

"Th-they found out..."

"Found out what, Al?" Harry asked. Al seemed to freeze, this wasn't how he hoped to tell his parents... After what happened with his friends he had considered never telling anyone again, but the oppurtunity was here. How could it get any worse?

"Th-that... I'm gay..." Angelina momentarily stopped applying the salve. She didn't expect to hear that... She glanced at Harry and Ginny, neither of them seemed very surprised, and thank Merlin, they didn't seem angry either. But they remained silent, which seemed to Albus like they were deciding what the best way to punish him was. His breathing quickened, and he tried to pull his arms away again. They didn't let go.

"I-I-I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, p-please d-don't..."

Ginny realized then what their silence must seem like to the boy. "Albus, sh, it's okay. We've suspected for awhile, it's nothing to be ashamed of." Albus looked at his mother, searching for the lie. Then, inexplicably, he started shaking. From head to toe, his entire body just started shaking and wouldn't stop.

"Al?" Angelina put her hand to his forehead, checking for a fever.

"Y-y-you're not... g-going to d-disown me?" His voice was very quiet and shaky.

"Disown you? Albus, what kind of parents do you think we are? We'll always love you no matter what, never forget that!" said Harry. Within seconds, Albus had pulled free of his mother and was sobbing in his father's arms. He knew he must seem like a child, but he didn't care.

"I wish you'd come to us sooner Al. You can't keep bottling things up." Harry murmured, stroking his son's hair. After a few minutes, Albus had calmed down enough that he felt he should explain further.

"I coudn't. I told my friends, and they were positively repulsed... I d-didn't want you to know... I w-was scared you'd reject me too."

"Oh Albus..."

"There's more! I... I told them I really liked Scorpius Malfoy, and they told him! H-he called me a fag in front of the whole school... and then everyone started calling me that. E-Even Rose. They wouldn't s-stop! E-Even on d-days it seemed like n-no one w-was saying anything, I'd f-find a new message on the b-bathroom wall about me. I g-got kicked off the Q-Quidditch team too. I-It wasn't until a couple weeks ago th-that they started beating on me... That w-was when they found out I c-cut. Th-they sad they were d-doing me a favour. I-If th-they inflicted the pain, I w-wouldn't have to d-do it myself... So I ran away."

There was silence again, but Harry broke it before Albus could panic again. "And during all of this, you didn't go to a teacher?"

"I wanted to.. b-but they told me they'd kill me if I told..."

"I'm going to the school. Albus, go home with your mother, eat a decent meal and then get some sleep okay? You're going to go back to school, but not unti I've made sure it's a safe place. Can you give me the names of the students who were hitting you?"

Albus took a quill from the table and scribled down a few names shakily. "Th-thanks dad..."

"I'll be back soon." Was all Harry said, before he left.

Ginny hugged Angelina and George, thanking them for looking out for Albus. Then she turned to Albus.

"Let's get you home."

~RW~

_AN: All right, so it's not my best work. But I suppose it's all right enough to post._ _Thanks for reading! If you like my stories, do you think you could also like my facebook page? It'll provide more details on my fanfictions and even bonus material that didn't get used, etc etc. I'll also post some drawings and stuff there too. _

RavenpuffWarrior

_Also, if you could leave a review, that'd be appreciated too. Thanks!_

_~RW_


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